People worrying about spare parts for the Fisker Karma: one of the rumours surrounding Fisker's spectacular demise is that it paid in advance for 15K units of many of the parts that went into it. With only ~2000 on the road finding replacements for these parts shouldn't be much of a problem for the next century or so. If the rumours are correct of course.

Interestingly CNG and EVs share some of the same problems

-low energy density energy storage devices that potentially eat away at interior space. That problem is actually bigger for CNG than BEVs
-both systems have substantially longer refill times than gasoline though CNG beats fastcharging of course
-both systems add substantial extra upfront cost compared to gasoline
-both systems come with the need to fill up more frequently

With better battery technology BEVs will no doubt offer the more attractive ownership experience but for now CNG might be more attractive for many since there is no range constraint. If GM could really shave $10K of the price of its EREV technology that might sidetrack CNG as well.

I think the Model S is causing something of an epiphany on Audi's home front. German reporters from Manager-Magazine tested the Model S and seemed utterly flabbergasted by what they experienced. They called it a wake up call for Germany's car industry that had somehow managed to be caught with its pants down by this American newcomer insisting that EVs are for short range city use only. For those who read German (or Google translate):

http://www.manager-magazin.de/lifestyle/auto/0,2828,897186,00.html

There is a reason Audi is loosing its nerve here.

Deleting that error invested press release was the only sensible move Audi made in this whole affair. ABG readers had a field day with it and it was widely interpreted as Audi starting to feel the pressure of Tesla's current sales blitz.

And maybe it should, first quarter Model S handily outsold Audi's two closest competitors within its range, A7 and A8. In fact it sold better than the two of them combined, ouch!

Sounds like sour grapes to me.

Such bitter rants, all because you can't read a simple comment properly. Sad...

Agreed, this car's success hardly depends on inductive charging. For an upmarket brand like Infiniti the real issue is range. A luxury vehicle with city car range doesn't sound like a winning concept. My guess would be that what Nissan is really waiting for is improved battery technology.

Read to learn a comment. Nobody is claiming victory here. My point was that the general scepticism regarding Tesla's future has taken an unexpected turn; the shorters are actually contributing to a much better outlook for Tesla. Nobody denies that the road is long and success remains uncertain. It certainly helps to have a lot of cash along the way though.

And the only one with a tendency for impolite, nasty, irrational and bitter comments here is you. Please let John Voelcker speak for himself, should he feel the need to. No need to spoil the discussion with your angry rants based on your total incapability to properly understand a comment.

Car production itself had a gross margin of 5% on average during the first quarter so in fact it *doesn't* need to be subsidized and Tesla is working to further improve gross margin.

It's true though that gross margin wasn't enough to cover all the expenses that weren't directly production related, but a lot of that is further investment and thanks to an army of misguided shorters Tesla can now afford the negative cashflow that comes with the continued need to invest, in fact it can speed up investment to build the foundations for a profitable future.

Time will tell if things pan out that way of course but so far underestimating Musk has been a costly affair for those putting too much stock in the opinions of experts.

Guess great things often have tiny beginnings so it can be confusing to pinpoint where it really all started. There is endless discussions about who made the first car; define car...

Including criteria like "sold rather than leased","modern", "mass production"and "accessible to the mass market" I still think RAV4 EV was the first. Not li-ion, but don't underestimate NiMH, still the chemistry of choice for Toyota and it scared the oil industry to the point the patent was snapped up by Chevron never to be allowed in 4 wheeled plug-ins again.

"mass production": Some 1500 were made of which 328 were sold directly to the general public at a (somewhat) "mass market accessible" price of $42K.

It's extremely interesting that the current 70-80 miles of range that seems to be the industry's standard isn't just perceived as inadequate by those who have never actually tried EV ownership but also by those who did.

Sends a clear signal to the industry: more range! Next range target: 150 miles.